Could T-Mobile’s cartoon help to change the incentive auction rules?

Have you ever worried that the spandex-clad “FCC Five” are being influenced by wall-climbing lobbyists with red and blue glowing eyes? Do you think spectrum is a series of wriggly lines suspended inside floating cubes?

If so, then you should enjoy this new campaign video from US operator T-Mobile. It portrays rules about how much and under what conditions spectrum will be set aside to smaller operators in the upcoming incentive auction as a titanic battle between good (T-Mobile) and evil (AT&T, Verizon).

The video joins a worthy collection of attempts to engage the public in spectrum policy. Last summer, for example, many enjoyed seeing Microsoft’s Jim Beveridge demonstrating the viability of TV white space by drawing some lines on a beach with a large stick. And who could ever forget the Colombian regulator’s spectrum mascot, Capitan Espectro?

But can T-Mobile inspire a popular insurrection over the technicalities of spectrum policy? Perhaps CEO John Legere hopes his campaign can capture the public imagination in the same way comedian John Oliver has over net neutrality. But while US late-night talk-show hosts’ editorials are low-budget and come from a long tradition of satirical journalism, the T-Mobile video is a slick and highly stylised production that is clearly pushing one company’s agenda.

The narrative dynamics driving these discussion are also very different: while net neutrality has been presented as a battle to save the Internet from meddling corporations, the nitty-gritty details of auction design are a bit more ambiguous.

On the one hand, the US mobile market is perceived as being much less competitive than in other developed countries. One reason for that is the two biggest operators have acquired licences for 70 per cent of mobile spectrum below 1 GHz. Therefore, the argument goes, the FCC should be prepared to set aside another 10 MHz to smaller carriers, rather than only up to 30 MHz, which is the current maximum set-aside allowed. The eventual amount will depend on how high the bidding is in the forward auction.

On the other hand, there is nothing to stop T-Mobile from bidding at whatever the market rate for the spectrum happens to be. The higher that rate is, the more likely it is that broadcasters will participate. T-Mobile is not exactly a small company.

On yet another hand (because no self-respecting cartoon monster has only two hands), there are many other worthy uses for which spectrum could perhaps be reserved.

Anything is possible, but the T-Mobile campaign’s hashtag #DefeatDuopoly is not trending on Twitter just yet.

Toby Youell, PolicyTracker

25/6/2015